Court tombs are among the oldest megalithic structures in Ireland, dating broadly to the Neolithic period, roughly 4000 to 3500 BCE. The defining feature is an unroofed, semicircular or oval forecourt formed from standing stones, which opens onto one or more roofed gallery chambers where the dead were placed. The forecourt is thought to have served a ceremonial function, a communal space for rituals associated with burial, making these structures something closer to monuments for the living as well as repositories for the dead.

The principal scholarly record for this tomb comes from the fieldwork of Ruaidhrí de Valera and Seán Ó Nualláin, whose Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland, Volume II, covering County Mayo, was published by the Stationery Office in Dublin in 1964. That volume remains a foundational document for understanding the distribution and typology of court tombs across Connacht, and Mayo in particular rewards the attention: the county contains an exceptional number of these monuments, scattered across bogland, hillside, and pasture in various states of preservation. The place name Lecarrowntemple is itself suggestive, combining elements that in Irish townland nomenclature often point toward ecclesiastical association or sanctified ground, layers of meaning that can accumulate over millennia on a single patch of land.